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Transport Math

Youíre playing Japan and have 1 usable transport, 3 infantry in
Japan, and 27 IPCs. What should you buy?

Well, assuming that itís not round 16 and the US isnít about to
invade with a huge army to win the game, this comes down to a simple
calculation of transport efficiency.

You want to have one transport for every two infantry, and you have
to buy now, knowing what your moves and intentions are this turn, likely
responses by the Allies, and what position that will leave you at the
beginning of your next turn.

Well, itís easy if you take it incrementally. First you have too
many infantry for your existing transports, so you want to go ahead and
get one more transport. That leaves you with 19 IPCs. You now donít
have enough infantry, so pick up one more. That leaves you with 16. A
set [one transport and two infantry] is 14, so that leaves you with 2.

But wait a second. You still have that one infantry on Okinawa and
another one on Wake. You almost forgot to include those, and they are
easy to pick up, since they are both just one space away from Japan.

That means that you can put back two infantry you had already
mentally committed to, so you now have perfect transport/infantry sets
and 8 IPCs left over. Go ahead and get one more transport. Itís not
perfect optimization, but as close as you can get. Besides, if you
continue to have too many transports, you can send one of them on a
mission to pick up those useless infantry on those hard-to-get-to
islands like the Solomons, Carolina, New Guinea, etc.

The net purchases you should make: 3 transports, 1 infantry.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, youíll start your next turn with
four transports and six infantry that can be picked up and moved ashore
this turn.

It may sound like a purchasing strategy that is very deterministic
and that leaves little room for creativity - thatís because it is.
Remember, most Axis & Allies games are not won by creativity, but
are slugging matches won by the player with the most patience and
biggest stack of infantry surviving at the end of the battle.

This transport/infantry mix should be your purchasing strategy for
Japan, the UK, and the US. Russia and Germany have it much simpler Ė
just buy infantry.